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Music: Voyage To Tomorrow (Hitoshi Sakimoto)
Chapter 71: Destruction 7
Time to get back to kaiju-smashin’.
None of the bonus objectives limit which pilots we can field this time, good.
Here, we get Gouto to +2 Neurolink. From this point on, we’re going to (mostly) try to only field pilots fresh off Brain Overload when they’ve got their Neurolink to +2. It’s a bit more efficient, even if it means that we’re going to be largely forgoing Sentinel armament upgrades until we’ve done that. It’s a shame direct Sentinel upgrades are so expensive.
Let’s go in with this team. Not really sure why I didn’t field Gouto after just having upgraded his Neurolink, but whatever.
Video: Destruction Wave 2-2
Music: (ISOLEUCINE) (Yoshimi Kudo)
On top of that, they’re equipped with barriers and high-output laser weapons that didn’t exist at the turn of the 22nd century. The rotors match the Drillflies, and the barrier was clearly taken from APSOS technology. Meaning… The 4th-generation mechs were created by Okino, derived from the designs of the Deimos themselves.
Really, the Sentinels have always kinda been siblings to the Deimos…
Let’s get to work.
We start by immediately placing a Sentry Gun and launching Interceptors, natch.
We send Hijiyama down southeast to greet this newly-spawned horde, but unfortunately, they’re mostly fliers.
Thankfully, we have a 3rd-generation Sentinel with us, so we can use EMP Stunner to drop (and stop) them. As this battle ramps up, we’re going to need to do this quite a lot.
Here we see the message that plays when a pilot’s planned movement route is blocked by a large ground-based enemy. That’s really all it means.
If you take a look at the minimap in the top-right, you’ll notice that there are quite a lot of enemies active at the moment, and they’re very close to the terminal. They’re simply too quick and spawning too fast for us to handle.
Really wishing Yuki’s Multi-Lock Missiles was beyond +1 at the moment, because we’re going to need a lot of it for these hordes.
Less power, eh…? Well, that just means it’s a fair fight now…
I’ll adjust the settings to get your output back up, but… one more hit like that and you’re done!
Oh no, Hijiyama’s in the thick of it and his Sentinel got damaged! Looking back at the tape, it was seriously just, like, one attack that did all that damage, he just melted instantly.
Let’s shield as many people as we can while including Hijiyama, then.
This is not good. Our terminal defense is falling rapidly with enemies right at the gates, plus there are Terra Carriers active now.
Let’s stun the enemies at the terminal to stop the bleeding.
Then, Miura fires off a railgun at point-blank range to take out most of them (wait, it’s a laser beam, does point-blank range apply?).
Their numbers are starting to thin, but we’re not out of the woods yet.
All right, it’s time to get rid of these Terra Carriers.
We bring in Yuki to Leg Spike the hell out of them.
We need Hijiyama to repair, he’s just too vulnerable at the moment.
Now that he’s on foot, we pop another Shield Matrix around him.
Another Leg Spike.
Hijiyama’s repairs are finished, let’s get him back on the battlefield.
Sweet.
That’s the last one.
They’re laid out in a network, like a massive nervous system. That’s why the kaiju are going after them.
Poor Tomi did almost nothing, just spammed EMP Stunner over and over for pretty much no damage. Meanwhile, Iori shit out two Sentry Guns and doubled the second-place pilot’s score, ha.
Okino’s Support is a skill that increases Back Attack range. I never actually put any thought into this one’s name/function until just now, but… maybe a little homophobic, wow. Hopefully not intentional.
I Can Fight Too! is a skill that increases the power of an armament if she uses it right after an attack from another ally.
Yuki’s Let’s Do This, Nat-chan! increases Yuki’s WT recovery speed if Natsuno is in the strike team.
Finally, Megumi’s This Time, I’ll Save You increases all her stats if Juro is in the strike team.
Ah shit, a B. Well, not super surprising given how poorly parts of that fight went.
Music: Voyage To Tomorrow (Hitoshi Sakimoto)
Because I’m an asshole, I decide to go right back in and fix that shameful B rating.
We upgrade Nenji’s Rush Attack from +2 to +4, giving him an additional hit. We also increase Leap Attack from +0 to +3.
Ryoko unlocks Shield Emitter, which she increases to +2. She also increases Sentry Gun from +4 to +5.
Juro increases his Sentry Gun from +3 to +5, and his Guardian from +0 to +1.
Well, let’s try again.
Music: (ISOLEUCINE) (Yoshimi Kudo)
Let’s try another strategy this time. Sentry Guns and Interceptors, of course, but more focus on EMPs from Natsuno and Nenji. We can also try using Guardians courtesy of Ryoko.
Oof. This isn’t going so hot, they’re just coming in too fast. Let’s reset from the pause menu and start over.
Okay, this time we’re going to try playing more cautiously and close to the terminal.
Nice terminal defense rating. Reset!
One problem we’ve been having is that Gouto isn’t starting with max EP, making it fairly difficult for him to get to a point where he can summon more Interceptors after his first batch dies to the massive swarms of flying kaiju. So, instead of launching off Interceptors immediately, we choose to have Gouto… defend. I think I need to be more liberal about having pilots, especially second-generation pilots, just defend to get some EP back.
We’re taking some lumps, but the swarm is honestly a little more manageable this time because I’ve been smarter about holding my skills and EP for emergencies.
Still using EMP Stunner a ton to get time to catch my breath, though.
The horde is thinning…
Last ones!
Whew! Let’s see how we did there.
Not Dead Yet increases Ryoko’s Defense as her HP decreases. Never really been a huge fan of those abilities, I’d prefer to just not get hit.
Goddammit. Looks like we’re doing that one again…
Music: Voyage To Tomorrow (Hitoshi Sakimoto)
Okay, this time we upgrade the Meta-System to Rank 9, and the Chip Multiplier to Level 5, increasing it to x1.8.
This time we’re not going straight back into 2-2, though. This time, we’re going back to 1-1 so we can run a “cleanser” op to get some people off Brain Overload. I don’t really love our chances with our current options. Optimally, I don’t even really want to field a 1st-generation Sentinel for our next attempt at 2-2, so we need to get some of our 2nd-generation units back as options.
We increase Miura and Iori’s Neurolink ranks to +2.
Let’s just get in and out. This shouldn’t take much time.
All right, easy peasy.
C’mon, C’mon! increases the power of Nenji’s Rush Attack with each hit. Or maybe it increases the power of each Rush attack after the first every time you use it? I think it’s the first one of those, but this description is vague enough that it could be the second? I dunno.
Back to 2-2. I swear we’re going to get to a different wave in this update, guys.
We’re going to increase Tomi’s Neurolink to +2.
This will be our team. I know Ei doesn’t have his Neurolink to +2 yet, but I ran out of Meta-Chips!
Music: (ISOLEUCINE) (Yoshimi Kudo)
Okay, we’re now at the for-real final attempt for this wave (at least for now). I’ll skip through summarizing it a bit, but if you inexplicably care to watch it, here it is.
Besides the usual Sentry Guns and Interceptors, we have one new (old) armament we can try, courtesy of Ei: Anti-Air Defensive Flares.
Maybe this’ll give us a bit of a buffer to the south.
They’re still coming in fast and furiously…
Once Ei gets the EP, we also try setting off some flares to the north side to quickly block a recent deployment of kaiju.
And why don’t we make it a full circle for good measure?
One thing that you can’t really see in these shots is that one of the Terra Carriers is literally inside the southeastern set of flares. I have no idea how it got so close to the terminal so quickly. But we dispatch it quickly enough with a few Leg Spikes (and a Rush Attack from Ei to finish it off).
And that’s all of them. Feeling good about this one, guys.
Brawling Prodigy is legitimately one of the coolest (and best) skills in the game. It increases the damage of Leg Spike proportionally with distance moved. I think what that means is, the further you travel from your initial position to perform a Leg Spike, the more damage that Leg Spike does.
I Work Alone increases Ei’s Attack and WT recovery speed when no allies are nearby, incentivizing sending him far away from the terminal. It’s a cool skill, but one that might cause us to overextend and get ourselves in trouble.
Hell yeah!
Music: Voyage To Tomorrow (Hitoshi Sakimoto)
Wave 2-3 time. This time, we need Hijiyama.
Ryoko to +2 Neurolink, you know the deal.
We unlock Hijiyama’s Composite Ceramic Armor and slot it in to replace Tackle.
I’m now realizing that I didn’t use Shu once despite deploying five times in this one. Well, uh… sorry, Shu.
Video: Destruction Wave 2-3
Music: (ISOLEUCINE) (Yoshimi Kudo)
Gross.
Judging by the data we got earlier, it’s not the same as the RPF we fought before… Looks like its design was improved, too.
What do we know about this kaiju? Any extra intel could help here.
The RPF was made for deep space exploration.
It’s the ultimate manufactory. Its nanomachine forge can handle all steps of production, even raw material synthesis. It’s an auto-propagating machine that can generate near-endless copies of itself.
A true monster…
Sentry Gun and Interceptors to start, you know the drill.
There’s only one RPF on the field to start, but more will drop soon (both the regular and upgraded variety. Some will deploy Twintails or Drillflies, some G-Molers, and some will just make barrages of missiles to shoot at you.
We had to bring Hijiyama, so let’s get some use out of him. Demolisher Blade all these clowns.
This shot is really just here because an interesting quirk of our Sentry Gun placement caused them all to fire directly at the Terminal for some reason. I guess there was an enemy or a missile or something headed over there? Whatever, I found it mildly amusing.
This is probably like our fifth Sentry Gun placement this battle, which is… a lot. Not the most, though!
Well, it’s like this… The RPF probably didn’t show up before this loop. We’ve seen the Deimos system using not only civic development machines, but space exploration tech. So if the system’s expanding its reference data based on its opponents, then… Based on current feedback… it’s entirely possible…
What is? Stop dancing around it.
Wait… you’re not saying…?
I’m saying I’ve got a bad feeling about this.
No idea what that means, but it’s probably bad!
Get Lost! increases the power of Tomi’s armaments when her target is a certain distance away.
Prepared for Death, like the Ryoko skill we saw earlier, increases his Defense as his HP decreases.
Finally, Leadership increases all the stats of everyone on the strike team if Gouto is a member of the defense team.
That went well, but this was… a lot. Let’s just check out some of the Mystery Files and call this one.
And while we’re at it, let’s unseal some files with our accrued Mystery Points.
Well, that's gonna do it for today. ...I really need to speed up the rate at which we do Destruction, yikes.